Fantagraphics is happy to announce that Google Play is our latest digital comics venue. Google Play is now showcasing some of our finest in art books, previously not available digitally, as well as some of our 2014 comic releases for your digital reading devices at a discount as well.

Never before released digitally from the genius, sick and twisted mind of Jacques Boyreau comesSupertrash, SexyTime and Portable Grindhouse.Supertrash, mutagenic sequel to Trash: The Graphic Genius of Xploitation Movie Posters (2002, Chronicle), the book that became a prophecy of the lasting influence of grindhouse and a model describing the shared evolution between art and trash. SexyTime: The Post-Porn Rise of the Pornoisseur is a fun romp through pre-digital 70s porn posters for the informed. The long sold-out Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box reprints some of the most louche, decadent, minimo-pervo artwork to ever grace a VHS box, featuring such movies as From Beyond, Penitentiary II, Beast of the Yellow Night, Cop Killers, Bay of Blood, Escape from Death Row, and Cocaine Wars.

Keep your eyes peeled for new releases and backlist to be added, any book page on our site with this fancy dandy button will take you directly to the book page to purchase the digital version of your favorite comics, novels and art books from Fantagraphics.

Athens, GA - We are THRILLED to reprint the award winning graphic novel, Set to Sea, in gorgeous softcover released this month. We would be even more thrilled if you could join us and Drew Weing at Avid Bookshop for the launch party of a book that's on it's way to becoming a classic.

Set to Sea plays out in several veins, part seafaring adventure, part homage to the poetry of written word, human strength, and nature. Readers of all ages will find something that pulls them in, and leaves them inspired to find satisfaction in life amongst adversity.

London - Throughout the year the non-profit arts group, Comica puts on various events around London, focusing on and showcasing the works of comic greats, while promoting new works. At this year's International Comics Fest, Fanta artists Jaques Tardi and Carol Swainwill be participating in featured events. This night from 7-8:30 pm, Carol Swain will be in conversation with others under the banner, "What makes a cult comic?". Find out the answer to this question, and maybe more! when you tune into the the Comica Comics Festival. (More Details)

Saturday, November 8th

Brooklyn, NY - First it changed its name, and now it's split into two days. But one that thing that hasn't changed is the spectacular line up of artists for Comic Arts Brooklyn 2014! Presented by Desert Island, join us for the first day of the festival at Our Lady of Mount Caramel to peep all our hot new releases, like the ZAP Collection, and get your probably smaller books signed by talents like Lane Milburn, Olivier Schrauwen, Dash Shaw, and Tim Lane (who designed that seriously amazing show poster). The show floor will be open from 11 am - 7 pm and it's FREE. (More Details)

Atlanta, GA - Find out if the pirate life is for you when you jump on board this spectacular joint signing with Drew Weing and Eleanor Davis at Criminal Records. We're celebrating the re-release of Drew's book, Set to Sea, in beautiful softcover. There will also be copies of the New York Times Bestseller, How to Be Happy, by Eleanor Davis on hand and ready for signing. Drew will also be presenting on themes shared in his book about poetry, living under the stars, and the water that holds us all together. This event begins at 3 pm. (More Details)

Tacoma, WA - Get set to jet set to Tacoma for their annual Jet City Comic Show! Special guests Peter Bagge, Ed Piskor and Megan Kelso will be joining us at the Fantagraphics booth to gab and sign their respective books like Buddy Buys a Dump, Hip Hop Family Tree, and Artichoke Tales. This one day show runs from 10 am - 5 pm, tickets available at the door. (More Details)

Sunday, November 9th

Vancouver B.C. - Head to the beautiful Heritage Hall this Sunday for the last Vancouver comic show of the year. Ed Piskor and Simon Hanselmann make their way up North to join fellow writers and artists Joe Keatinge, Leila del Duca, and Ed Brisson. Celebrate comics and support Vancouver Schools by donating gently used, age-appropriate books at the venue. You'll get free admission, and feel like less of a scumbag! Everyone wins! Come on down from 11 am - 5 pm. (More Details)

Brooklyn, NY - The second day of CAB dawns this Sunday with it's programming day. All programs take place at the Wythe Hotel from 11 am - 6 pm. There's great stuff all day, and we recommend checking out Charles Burns discussing Black Hole at Noon, and at 1:30Tim Lane joins Jim Rugg and Ben Marra to talk about neo noir in comics. All programs are FREE, but you'll want to pick up tickets in advance, or you might not get in. (More Details)

Monday, November 10th

Washington D.C. - Pat Thomas will be appearing at George Washington University to present a multi-media, multi-sensory presentation that combines music, images, and spoken word recordings to present a bizarre and engaging connection between the Partridge Family and the Black Panther Party; Timothy Leary and Eldridge Cleaver; Amiri Baraka and Motown; and Bob Dylan and George Jackson. Free and open to the public, events kicks off at 6:30. (More Details)

The time is nigh to get your sea legs so strap on your cutlass and step aboard the good ship Criminal Records this coming Saturday, November 8th. Nefarious outlaw among the waves, Drew Weing will be signing and sketching in copies of his freshly reprinted graphic novel, Set to Sea. This rollicking adventure and ballad follows the life of an aspiring poet (and big lug) as he is shanghaied aboard a ship bound for Hong Kong, changing his notions on the romantic sea life. Weing will also give a small presentation about life under the stars and above the murky depths.

But what's this? The fine and true, Eleanor Davis, has stowed away aboard Criming Records and the penalty for such crimes is signing copies of her NY Times Best Seller, How to Be Happy! This collection of tales twists and turns about all genres with gorgeous full-color dystopians to two color fairy tales.

Come to Criminal Records at 3pm on Saturday, November 8th lest we find ya and hogtie you.

"While the early issues stand as rowdy documents of the 1960s counterculture, Zap was also more. In reinventing the comic book, it set off legal battles and conversations over censorship, brought attention to cartoonists as artists, and set an example for generations of alternative comics creators like Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes, Joe Matt and the Hernandez Brothers." – Dana Jennings, The NY Times

"The portraits are a genuine insight and reflection of the person and their contribution. Special kudos to Drew for his careful research so that the bios are accurate and help to add to the ongoing study of how it all began in comics." – Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson, The Beat

"He doesn't just draw the funny or sexy moments -- he lets the characters and the readers enjoy and laugh, but then he shows the fallout from some of the characters' actions, depicting them as them scared and desperate, pathetic and troubled. Hanselmann's skill at depicting this range of emotions and exploring those consequences is what makes his work so fascinating and so worth rereading." – Alex Dueben, Comic Book Resources

Plug: "Any time a Carl Barks or Don Rosa book of Donald Duck or Uncle Scrooge comics is released, I get all excited. Because they’re great! I’m not kidding! Also good for jaded fans too cool for kids’ comics." – Dan Greenfield, 13th Dimension

"This adorable little collection of strips is the perfect prize for your costume contest. Growing up, you may have gotten to know the Great Pumpkin mainly through the evergreen TV special — but the original strips collected here are both brainier and more emotionally complex than the show." – Etelka Lehoczky, NPR

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators and web-savvy comic shops are saying about them (more to be added as they appear), check out our previews at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability. WARNING: Do not atttempt to carry all of these titles at once. You are only human.

"It's really good. I thought that giant Sock Monkey collection was criminally under-discussed when it came out. Those are lovely, lovely comics. The characters work in this form, too." –Tom Spurgeon, Comics Reporter

"Now that sublime and out-of-print yarn is back as a deliciously handy, pocket-sized softcover reissue that will - if there's any justice - finally make [Weing] a household name amongst lovers of tall tales and comic treasures." –Win Wiacek, Now Read This!

"Very few words are needed in Weing's debut graphic novel [Set to Sea] to tell the story of a poet wanna-be who is kidnapped by pirates and learns the ways of the sea through hard labor and even tougher battles. The cross-hatch styling is reminiscent of old engravings and perfectly suits the subject matter. Each page features just one frame, full of detail and atmosphere. With hints of The Odyssey, Moby Dick, Popeye and Treasure Island, Weing has created a modern classic in the pirate genre." –School Library Journal

"You're gonna want to pick that up this week, or write yourself a note to do so in the near future, as it's a pretty great collection..." –J Caleb. Mozzocco, Every Day is Like Wednesday

"You must think I'm a broken record by now. Any time a Carl Barks or Don Rosa book of Donald Duck or Uncle Scrooge comics is released, I get all excited. Because they're great! I'm not kidding! Also good for jaded fans too cool for kids' comics." –Tim Finn, Hub Comics (via 13th Dimension)

"Let me be perfectly clear: The Don Rosa & Carl Barks Duck books are as good as comics get. Period. Nothing surpasses - only matches - the pure imagination, humor, adventure, and heart of these Donald Duck & Uncle Scrooge stories. These are desert island comics - if I had to take only one box of comics with me somewhere, a couple of these volumes would be coming with." –Vince Ostrowski, Multiversity Comics

"…it's a rare, rare accomplishment what Rosa did with these great Carl Barks characters and comics." –Tom Spurgeon, Comics Reporter

"...[T]here's simply no denying Kelly's mastery: he evokes full characters with nothing but a few choice words, and the sprightliness of his visual style is all fun here, laying the groundwork for what would become profoundly subversive later. The included essays, as is usually the case for Fantagraphics reissues, absolutely nail the context and import of the strip, too. I just don't think you can say you love comics and not have this around." –David Berry, National Post

"The biggest revelation of reading the first two years of Pogo is how polished and funny the strip was right from the start, and also how nearly every Pogo panel is a delight unto itself. Kelly didn't necessarily build to big punchlines; he'd slip funny sight gags and memorable lines everywhere there was room. ...[T]here's a classic Pogo moment on just about every page of this book." - Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

"The daily black-and-white comics were great but the full-color Sunday strips gave Schulz a big, beautiful canvas to let his expert pacing and amazing linework breathe in a rainbow of color...it's really the entire mix of characters ...and their mix of adult prickliness and childlike naiveté that made Charles Schulz's iconic comics strips so timeless." - Evan Narcisse, Kotaku

"I will not rest until everyone is reading these reasonably priced and beautifully designed and edited volumes of Carl Barks' Disney Duck masterpieces… every one of them are great." –Andy Mansell, Heroes Online

"Even now, Barks' stories are clever and funny, as he leads the ducks into impossible situations and then gives them unexpected ways out. And they're poignant in their own way, too.... What's impressive about Fantagraphics' Lost in the Andes is that it encourages both a fannish and an intellectual approach to the material." - Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

The central character of Set to Sea is a big lug and an aspiring poet who runs up tabs at the local bars by day and haunts the docks by night, writing paeans to the seafaring life. When he gets shanghaied aboard a clipper bound for Hong Kong, he finds the sailor's life a bit rougher than his romantic nautical fantasies, but he learns to live — and love — a Conradian life on the sea, all the while writing poetry about pirates, bad food, unceremonious funerals, foreign ports, and unexpected epiphanies. By the end of his life, he's found satisfaction in living a life of adventure and finding a receptive and appreciative readership. What more could one ask for? Set to Sea is part rollicking adventure, part maritime ballad told in visual rhyme. Every page is a single panel, every panel is a stunning illustration, every illustration a part of a larger whole that tells a story in the deft language of cartooning.

"Drew Weing’s beautiful art and masterful pacing are so pleasurable that Set To Sea stands up to multiple reads. It’s a catchy little tune that sounds better with each spin.” – The AV Club

"The book contains very little dialogue, so it’s Weing’s images themselves that do the narrative work. And they’re a singular mix: in the foreground, bright, cartoony figures that look like they’re moonlighting from an E.C. Segar Popeye comic strip; in the background, densely crosshatched, painstakingly detailed seascapes." – NPR

"With hints of The Odyssey, Moby Dick, Popeye and Treasure Island, Weing has created a modern classic in the pirate genre." – School Library Journal

The central character of Set to Sea is a big lug and an aspiring poet who runs up tabs at the local bars by day and haunts the docks by night, writing paeans to the seafaring life. When he gets shanghaied aboard a clipper bound for Hong Kong, he finds the sailor's life a bit rougher than his romantic nautical fantasies, but he learns to live — and love — a Conradian life on the sea, all the while writing poetry about pirates, bad food, unceremonious funerals, foreign ports, and unexpected epiphanies. By the end of his life, he's found satisfaction in living a life of adventure and finding a receptive and appreciative readership. What more could one ask for? Set to Sea is part rollicking adventure, part maritime ballad told in visual rhyme. Every page is a single panel, every panel is a stunning illustration, every illustration a part of a larger whole that tells a story in the deft language of cartooning.

Arrrrrrr, ye scallywags. Our office copies of the softcover Set to Sea have washed ashore, and we are thrilled to show them off! For those of you who weren't at SPX to see these in person, here is our first look. In one densely rendered panel: a deep, dark sky with its smattering of stars. In the next, a beautifully detailed closeup of the poet's book, showing the detail of his cracked, sea-worn fingernails.